Philosophy Quotes and Secondary Arguments Flashcards
Religious Language- Ayer vs Wittgenstein
Ayer- Wittgenstein provides no hierarchy of games- we should, in theory be just as accepting of superstition as we are of actual theology
Ancient Influences- Aristotle criticism of Plato
How can the Form of the Good apply to all objects? - a human is not good in the same way a horse may be
God’s Attributes- Molina
Natural, middle and free knowledge (real, possible and hypothetical)- only natural is necessary to God
Religious Experience- Mackie
If mystical experiences are psychologically explainable, they can have no authority and cannot be automatically believed
Religious Experience- Feuerbach
Humans project fears of mortality and unanswerable questions onto God
Religious Language- Ferre
Language can describe but not define God
Soul, Mind and Body- Anscombe
A body is needed to point, but cannot explain the meaning of it
Religious Experience- Swinburne
Reasonable probability of God’s existence if all other arguments are taken into account
Religious Language- Maimonides
Positive statements about God are improper- Via Negativa is the only way
Religious Language- Ayer
To speak of God is meaningless- not practically verifiable
Teleology- Hume quote
‘How hostile and destructive’
Cosmology- Emmet
God could not have started existence as he is timeless- no chronology
God’s Attributes- Kraal
‘God and goodness are identical’- Euthyphro Dilemma is false, not a question of which came first
God’s Attributes- Hick
God cannot be omnibenevolent if he created hell
Ontology- Descartes
The quality of existence can no more be separated from God than three angles totalling 180 can be separated from the idea of a triangle
God’s Attributes- Craig (2)
God may be everlasting- change does not necessarily signal improvement as is argued
Time needs to be viewed as one unitary thing rather than a continuous process to consider God as timeless
Cosmology- Dawkins
Universe is a purposeless ‘brute fact’- against Leibniz’s sufficient reason
God’s Attributes- Anselm
God exists in 4 dimensions outside of time, cannot be understood in ideas of linear chronology
God’s Attributes- Pike
God is everlasting- timelessness would rid humans of free will and make reality as a simulation
Cosmology- Russell
‘I should say that the universe is just there and that is all’- against Leibniz’s sufficient reason
Religious Experience- Hume
Draws attention to human ‘love of fantastical’ and bizarre- stories often exaggerated or embellished
Religious Experience- Lash
James makes religion dependent on a few pattern-setters
Religious Experience- James quote
‘They point with reasonable probability to the continuity of our consciousness with a wider, spiritual environment from which the ordinary man is shut off’
Religious Experience- James vs Mackie
Religion and neurological fallacy perfectly compatible
One never brings up ‘author’s neurotic constitution’ in science
Religious Language- Weismann quote
‘A statement which cannot be conclusively verified is simply devoid of any meaning’
God’s Attributes- Swinburne
God is everlasting- eternal present for God implies all earthly moments take place all at once
Ancient Influences- Russell
Plato’s Theory of the Forms falls into ‘a bottomless pit of nonsense’
God’s Attributes- Cullman
God is everlasting- moves through time with us and knows all that is logically possible to know
God’s Attributes- Lafleur
God is everlasting- if he existed outside of the bounds of time, he would have no means of interaction- no religious significance or omnipotence
Religious Language- Barth
God cannot be defined with language and worldly experience- only with direct revelation
God’s Attributes- Kenny
Boethius seems to suggest that all earthly moments take place at once- evidently untrue
God’s Attributes- Descartes
God can do the logically impossible- i.e. interact from outside of time
God’s Attributes- Davies
God’s goodness is not simply being well-behaved, sin is an impossibility for God
Problem of Evil- Schleiermacher
Evil cannot have created itself from a perfect world- criticism of Augustine
Soul, Mind and Body- Dawkins
No immortal consciousness separate from brain
Religious Language- Popper
The truth or falsehood of a statement is determined by whether it can be empirically tested
Soul, Mind and Body- Simmias
Plato’s soul need not exist in a former or future life, only before birth and after death
God’s Attributes- Geach
God is everlasting- ‘Supreme Grand Master’ whose plan will be executed
Soul, Mind and Body- Dennett
Behaviourism over-simplifies human consciousness down to that of a lower animal
Cosmology- Davies
It is not the same part of the animal which moves as that which causes it to move (counter argument to the claim that Aquinas is wrong to say nothing causes its own motion)
Cosmology- Mackie
It is not self-contradictory to conclude that the universe is purposeless- argument against Leibniz who insists on a sufficient reason for it
Cosmology- Copleston
Cause and effect clearly exists and is inherent in all movement- against Hume’s claim that there is no such thing
Teleology- Kant
Ideas of order and purpose in nature are simply impositions of the mind
Problem of Evil- Irenaeus Quote
‘How, if we had no knowledge of the contrary, could we have instruction in that which is good?’
Soul, Mind and Body- Swinburne
Human identity and ‘fundamental truths’ such as conscience and good will are found in soul
Soul, Mind and Body- Ward
Without soul, morality is a matter of personal taste
Soul, Mind and Body- Watts
One does not know how to open and close the hand- a physiologist does, but this does not enable him to do so any more than I (non-dualist)
Religious Experience- Lofland and Stark
Element of ‘passivity’ discovered in conversion experiences- something acting upon them
Teleology- Dawkins
There is no order in the universe- ‘brute fact’
God’s Attributes- Craig (omnipotence)
Omnipotence is full capability of all that is logically possible
Cosmology- Hawking
Infinite universe with no beginning or end- no room or need for Creator
God’s Attributes- Hartshorne and Process Theologians
God is everlasting- part of the world as well as above it, held by laws of physics, moves through time with us with no foreknowledge
Soul, Mind and Body- Flew
There can be no soul without body as no smile without a face or seal without wax
God’s Attributes- Mill
God cannot be omnibenevolent if he created an imperfect world
Religious Experience- Sartre
A ‘matter of interpretation’, distinct from actual event
Ancient Influences- Parmenides (2)
Plato fails to explain exactly how a material object partakes in its Form
Do all things, even mundane and seemingly purposeless, have a perfect Form?
Cosmology- Kenny
‘A king-maker need not himself be king, and it is not dead men who commit murder’- argument against Aquinas’ claim that only something in actuality can cause something else in actuality
Soul, Mind and Body- two categories of Monism
Idealistic Monism- only the mind exists (Leibniz)
Materialistic monism- only matter exists (Russell, Dawkins)
Teleology- Swinburne
Discredits Many Worlds Hypothesis
Given Anthropic Coincidences, God is the most simple answer
Religious Experience- Flew
Ten flawed arguments do not make one sound cumulative one- against prior probability argument
God’s Attributes- Philips
God is not an object among other objects- cannot be understood in human ideas of temporality
Religious Experience- Freud
Religion an illusion based on human wishes and unfulfillment- Oedipus complex
Soul, Mind and Body- Carlin
Plato fails to account for growing population with fixed number of souls
Religious Language- Hare
Parable of the Lunatic- religious people will change the terms of the discussion despite evidence to the contrary- religious language is meaningless
Teleology- Mill
Flawed design implies a flawed creator incompatible with Judeo-Christian thought
Soul, Mind and Body- Aristotle quote
‘The soul does not exist without a body and yet is not itself a kind of body’
Soul, Mind and Body- Skinner
All mental acts are simply learned behaviours
God’s Attributes- Rowe quote
‘God could no more cease to be perfectly good than a triangle could cease to have three angles’
Soul, Mind and Body- Descartes quote
‘This “I” is entirely distinct from the body, and would not fail to be whatever it is, even if the body did not exist’
God’s Attributes- Augustine
‘thy “today” yields not to tomorrow and does not follow yesterday’
Religious Experience- Maudsley
‘What right have we to believe God is under any obligation to do his work by complete minds only?’
God’s Attributes- Kotarbinski
Temporality cannot be separated from existence- God cannot exist ‘outside of time’ as Boethius claims
God’s Attributes- Frankena
God can still be omnibenevolent despite varying degrees of suffering among people- justice is not treating everyone equally
God’s Attributes- Kierkegaard
God is everlasting- cannot be active in time if he is apart from it
Cosmology- Temple
An infinite regress can be conceived but not imagined- argument against Aquinas’ claim that it is logically incomprehensible
Cosmology- Hume
Ideas of ‘cause’ and ‘effect’ are products of the human mind and do not really exist, yet underpin Cosmology
Ontology- Kant (2 points)
To say ‘God exists’ adds nothing to the concept of God
Existence is not a proper predicate- the quality of existence being necessary to his concept does not necessitate existence in actuality
Religious Experience- Cottingham
Experiences may well be spiritual or supernatural but not necessarily religious
